Florida Legislature will hold a special session next week to consider a state takeover of Disney World's Reedy Creek Improvement District

Feb 03, 2023 in "The Walt Disney Company"

Posted: Friday February 3, 2023 2:44pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

According to several local Florida news outlets, the Florida Legislature will hold a special session on Monday February 6 2023 to consider a state takeover of Disney World's Reedy Creek Improvement District.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Reedy Creek reorganization will be presented in Senate committees by Sen. Travis Hutson, R-Palm Coast.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said that the legislation will result in Reedy Creek board members being appointed by the Florida Governor and Disney paying upwards of $700 million in Reedy Creek debt.

The action by DeSantis comes in retaliation to Disney's public opposition to the parental rights law, which took place under the ex-CEO Bob Chapek.

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Disstevefan134 minutes ago

On the other hand, the "residents" of RCID were hand picked by Disney. There were two little cul-de-sacks of mobile homes within the district and those were the hand picked residents of RCID.

JoeCamel38 minutes ago

You elect the governor and they appoint the board so you still have a vote. In any case I think that would be a federal complaint not one tried in the state courts

tecowdw1 hour ago

On thing I've always wondered why it wasn't mentioned by Disney... The CFTOD board is 100% appointed by the State with no representation from the actual land owners within the municipality. They have no voting rights to pick who represents them on the board. Now I realize that was kind of the point of the whole political issue but how is that not unconstitutional - taxation without representation? Doesn't every municipality have to do general elections to pick their board representatives? Even RCID did that.

tecowdw1 hour ago

Just goes to show that the whole thing was just a political stunt. Now that the political steam has ran out on this issue, it actually operates like it is suppose to. A good sign that maybe CFTOD and Disney can live amicably after all. And I'm sure they definitely will once the remnants of Desantis and his original board cronies are all long gone and forgotten. It was always a given that Disney would be around long after those political individuals' "15 seconds of fame" ended. I wonder if Garcia, the vocal Disney critic, leaving the board was part of a back room deal to get Disney to drop their lawsuits and renegotiate the RCID development agreement. Maybe that's also how an experienced new administrator got put in place as well. I can't imagine Disney just relinquished all of it's lawsuits/agreements without ensuring they had something valuable in return since they are +80% of the district's tax base in land ownership. They just aren't that stupid! ;) At the end of the day, while Disney lost control of their municipality, it's in everyone's best interest to work together for the common goal of bringing tourist dollars in to the maximum potential. Central Florida could be a very different place had Disney not been able to expand their operations for 51 years with RCID.

GoneViral1 day ago

Happy days are here again.

MR.Dis1 day ago

I just read a report that the CFTOD meeting was a boring managing the district business, just like the old RCID days. No protests and very little attendance. No mention of the pending negotiation of the developement agreement.

DCBaker3 days ago

The agenda and documents for the CFTOD Board of Supervisors meeting is now available at the link below. Included in this packet are documents related to the FY2023 Annual Financial Statement presentation and an annual audit by Cherry Bekaert, LLP. As a head's up, the meeting has shifted an hour from previous times - it is scheduled to begin at 10:30am. https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-Packet-4-24-24-Final-P.pdf

flynnibus8 days ago

Looks to be moved https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf

wdwmagic8 days ago

Amazing, there is actually some real business on the agenda for a change.

DCBaker8 days ago

The agenda outline for the next CFTOD meeting on Wednesday, April 24 is available at this link*: https://www.oversightdistrict.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BOS-Meeting-04-24-24-Agenda-Outline.pdf *Edited to update as the link was changed after posting (thanks @flynnibus!).

flyakite10 days ago

Batman'sParents13 days ago

Was curious about this: Is there an expectation that CFTOD will delegate some responsibilities to the cities as part of the understanding between the state and Disney?

Dcgc2816 days ago

All good! I was going to be blown away lol

MR.Dis16 days ago

error, I edited the original post